The Deepest Loss of All
by HotchRocks
Summary: Warning: Character deaths. What if Hotch couldn't save Haley or Jack from Foyet? Would he be able to deal with the repercussions? And what if his team couldn't get to him in time to keep him from falling apart? Alternate ending to the episode '100'.


_**A/N: This idea came to me while I was watching the episode '100' for the umpteenth time. It's an alternate ending which takes place after Haley's death and Hotch had killed Foyet; but before his team arrives at the home he once shared with Haley. I do not own the characters of Criminal Minds. They are the property of the Mark Gordon Company, ABC Studios, and CBS Paramount Network Television.  
**_

**The Deepest Loss of All**

Aaron Hotchner, the sleeves of his white dress shirt stained with George Foyet's blood, and his face streaked with his own blood from the numerous cuts to his face, stumbled up the stairs to the upper level where the bedroom they once shared was located. He briefly glimpsed into the room as he staggered by, catching only another brief glimpse of Haley's blood soaked corpse lying on the floor beside the bed; hot tears nearly blinding him. And though the sight of her body broke his heart, he couldn't think of that right now. There was nothing he could do for her now; she was beyond his help. But there was somebody else who wasn't; somebody who needed him now. He continued stumbling back upstairs in the direction of what used to be his office when he lived there. His last words on his cell to his five-year old son Jack still echoing in his head.

"_Jack, I need you working the case with me. I need you to work the case," knowing Jack would know what he meant. It was their secret coded message that only they shared; not even Haley knew about it. Whenever Hotch told Jack he needed him to 'work the case,' it was a code for Jack to run to his father's office and hide inside the chest that was on the floor beside his father's desk. And most importantly, to be very, very quiet and wait for him to come for him._

_Please be there, Jack! Please!_ Reaching his former office, Hotch staggered inside and fell to his knees in front of the chest; his heart racing a mile a minute and gripped with fear at what he might find. He remembered hearing Foyet over Haley's cell hollering 'I'll be right up Jackie boy!' just before he shot and killed Haley. And as he and Foyet fought in the bedroom and their battle spilling down the stairs to the living room, he recalled Foyet telling him _'After I'm finished with you, I'm gonna find that bastard son of yours and show him his dead parents, and make sure he knows it was all your fault!' He knew by those words that Foyet hadn't found Jack's hiding place._

Steadying himself, Hotch slowly raised the lid of the chest only to be greeted by the most gruesome sight ever. There was blood everywhere inside the chest and dripping off the lining of the interior of the lid. _Foyet had lied to him! Oh God! _Hotch thought to himself as he covered his eyes shielding them from the bloody and mutilated discovery inside. Suddenly a primal scream of sheer agony and despair issued forth from Hotch's lips indicating his already broken heart had now been ripped to shreds and could never be fixed.

"No! Oh God no! Noooooo!" he cried over and over as he heard faintly the sound of footsteps below, lots of them; and shouts drifting upward. Hotch staggered out of the room blinded by tears streaming down his face so much so he could barely find his way back into the bedroom dropping to his knees beside Haley's corpse searching for and finally finding what he was looking for; Foyet's weapon. He collapsed in a heap to a sitting position on the floor, sobbing uncontrollably as he fingered the gun in his hands. He had failed Haley and now Jack. Foyet had lied to him. Everything was gone and none of it could be saved or repaired. _I failed! I failed you, Haley! I failed to protect our son! My God. Jack! _He barely heard the sound of footsteps pounding up the steps and he thought he heard someone call his name. But if they did, he didn't pay attention as he placed the gun against his temple, his finger on the trigger.

"Hotch, _no_! _Don't_!" a voice cried out from the doorway. Sounded like Morgan. But Hotch, in a catatonic-like daze, didn't seem to pay attention. Morgan, having entered the bedroom, found his boss and friend holding a gun to his temple with his finger tightening on the trigger and leaped forward just the sound of a gunshot filled the air and the gun fell from Hotch's fingers as he fell sideways onto the floor.

"_Hotch!_"Morgan dropped onto the floor and cradled his boss and friend in his arms, tears rolling down his own face. Rossi and Reid now stood in the doorway watching. They had found Foyet's bloody beaten corpse and then the contents of the chest as well.

Morgan gently brushed aside a few loose strands of dark hair that had fallen across Hotch's forehead as the dying man raised his eyes to look at his friend. "Derek…failed… Haley…Jack…failed…" his eyes closed as his head fell to the side against Morgan's chest.

Morgan looked up at Reid and Rossi still in the doorway; Reid was crying while Rossi, his eyes bright, swallowed the lump in his throat. JJ and Emily had joined them and were crying as well; JJ covered her mouth with one hand while Emily struggled and failed miserably at maintaining her composure as her tears fell.

Morgan, in a daze, turned his eyes back to the friend he was still holding in his arms. "You beat 'im, Hotch," he said so softly nobody else could hear. "You didn't fail, man. Now you have your family back and nobody can ever take them from you again."

**The End**


End file.
